Florida's Quail Roost Sold For $2 Million

Elmer and Harriet Heubeck, longtime Florida owners, breeders, and farm managers, have sold the remaining 150 acres of the original Quail Roost Farm in Reddick, Fla., to Larry Roberts, owner of R & L Carriers, an Ohio-based trucking company, and Roberts Quarter Horses, a 650-acre farm that adjoins the property.

The $2-million sale price includes a one-mile training track, a seven-furlong grass course, and a 40-stall barn. The Heubecks own Quail Roost Farm II, a 1,200-acre facility located nearby.

Quail Roost's fencing is being removed by 83-year-old Elmer Heubeck, who has been working with Thoroughbreds since age 14. “Roberts is going to put up new fencing,” Heubeck said. “I'll use the fencing from Quail Roost on my other farm for cattle and hay.”

The Heubecks first came to Ocala in 1939. Elmer Heubeck graduated with a degree in animal husbandry from the University of Maryland, and later become the manager of Ocala's first Thoroughbred farm, Carl G. Rose's Rosemere Farm in 1945. He later went to work for Jack Dreyfus and developed Hobeau Farm.

In other Florida news, Roy Lerman's Lamb Holm Farm South in Reddick continues its transformation. It was purchased this spring by Lerman, a Washington, D.C., attorney who owns Lamb Holm Farm in Middleburg, Va.

“We intend to keep the farm a premier facility,” Lerman said. “We hope to return to the days of the Wooden Horse era, with Junior Serna training more horses for outside clients.”

Some of clients who now use the 421-acre farm are Aaron Jones, Eugene Melnyk, Haras Santa Maria de Araras, and David Holloway, owner of the 8-year-old gelding Bet On Sunshine, who won the Aristides Handicap (gr. III) at Churchill Downs July 1. Allen Paulson, the farm's former owner, still has a barn full of horses at the facility.

Lerman has brought a number of horses to his Florida-based operation. He intends to base half his broodmare band at the Ocala-area farm, and currently races in Delaware, Maryland, and New York.